Member Reflections

One Lifetime, One Meeting

Weekly Practice | May 12, 2024

The gift of cooking

I have always found joy to cook for those I love. In fact, my idea of paradise is a long long table full of family, friends and neighbors. Several of us will have spent the day cooking and preparing the table. Prior to that we will have spent lots of time talking about what we will cook.

I have a new loved one to cook for now and that is Pochi, my dog. Once a week I make us a big pureed vegetable soup (without salt, onions or garlic). The part for Pochi will have added meat and the part for me will have caramelized onions and roasted garlic and some salt. She gets to lick the pan in which I have mixed the meat and vegetables. So easy to clean up! I love to watch her lick her chops.

The gift of the night sky

For me, yesterday, the northern lights offered an unanticipated opportunity for practice. And when I read the email with the "One Lifetime, One Meeting" practice, I was inspired to write this prose poem…

Nothing to see – A lesson from the northern lights

I didn’t see the northern lights yesterday.
They didn’t come back,
even though it was predicted that they would.

Because of the prediction,
I made preparations this time,
so that I would see and experience them even better than on the day before,
when I did not know what to expect when they suddenly appeared out of
nowhere in the sky, and all I could do,
being unprepared,
was stop in my tracks and stare in speechless awe.

Another appearance of the northern lights was predicted for yesterday.
This time, I was prepared.
I picked the perfect spot for viewing, a hidden field in a park,
away from the throngs of greedy stargazers, shielded from the noise and the lights, a large hidden field lined with tall trees
—perfect!

But the northern lights didn’t come.

On the previous day,
seeing the northern lights,
I delighted in the thrilling sensation that the universe had come to pay earth a visit and to offer its gift of magic and wonder.

Yesterday, too, the universe came for a visit, and it brought
nothing but the lovely crescent moon,
one star after another lighting up, glowing more brightly with each passing moment, constellation upon constellation filling the sky,
the touch of a warm spring breeze and the petrichor of damp earth…

The universe came and offered nothing,
but the call of an owl in the dark.

The gift of friendship

I love this practice.

On Sunday, Mother’s Day, I wanted to spend time with my friend who is also a mother like me. Our adult children live thousands of miles away. And we’ve been hiking and skiing together for years. We practice meditation together. Last year, she got very ill. It has been a long haul for her.

For our “One Lifetime, One Meeting”, we met at our favorite Thai restaurant. Two for one off season specials! She paid for mine and I paid for hers. This was a most special time to see her healthy and vibrant again.

As we were talking in the restaurant I noticed she was wearing the necklace I gave her for Christmas in 2023: “No Mud, No Lotus”.   She said she wears it all the time. I purchased it in Plum Village, back in 2012, in my second year of being in the Plum Village tradition. At Blue Cliff Monastery, in 2023, when I ordained, I bought the necklace “This Is It”.

After dinner, we went to see the home she is having built. I even got to enjoy her two horses and touch them. So happy, during all the struggles she has had, that she has something to look forward to. To friends and to animal beings.